Quite a week, in retrospect

Ups and downs this week. In order to figure out when something happened, I spent a while re-reading blog posts from the time when my career was getting seriously kneecapped. There is so much discussion of stress, crying, 14-hour days etc... it put me in a pretty bad mood. However, it feels like summer now. And various life was lived:

• Yes! I got more insulation added to my attic with no drama! Nothing went wrong, the city didn't catch us doing it without a permit, it was on schedule.


• Drove to Garden In the Woods with motyl. I bought a "native pollinator variety pack" of 25 plugs spanning five shade-loving species, bought an extra shrub because why not, and accepted two more plants from motyl. Now they're all in the ground! All will be watered, but only the strong will likely survive.


• Hung out three other times with ex-coworkers (two of these involved motyl so I think that's a record for hangouts in one week). All of it felt indulgent, fun and warming. I talked another one of them into joining me on the crossword constructor Discord server.


• Finished listening to King Sorrow while pulling out some BSW from the neighborhood.


• Asked for / accepted the job of renovating the rental cottage, in preparation for Squirrel Mama moving in next year. She's an octogenarian and will need some modifications made to the bathroom, plus it's time to get a washer/dryer installed. I will enjoy the design challenge -- and importantly, she's not my family member, so gathering requirements from her doesn't push my buttons.


• Succeeded in some art, making a reverse applique T-shirt with metallic stars peeking out. This is still not quite done because I want to add another layer of soft jersey behind some of the metallic stuff, but it's close.


• The squirrel got me to express a desire for an actual thing for my birthday, and then (because it is a horrible creature) bought me a nice one and got it new, rather than refurbished like I asked for. Argh! It's too much for a birthday present! So anyway, now I have a cover stitch machine, and should soon be able to make professional-style seams and hems for knitwear. I'm excited! Half my Psylo clothing has detailing that I love that, when you look closely, is made with a cover stitch machine.


• Not sure if I'm excited or not: I worked on press handstands for a long time at open studio, and I did one good one that my coach says actually counts. I didn't have a mat under my feet, but still had one to press my forearms into, so I said I thought it didn't count (this is still a drill) and he said I need to stop giving myself shit. I guess "my coach thinks I did one" is a pretty cool milestone in itself.

On the medical front, I've scheduled a colonoscopy. Best to get that done before I lose my good insurance. Quarte's surgery on Monday went well. And my dad had some kind of vertigo episode that the doctors briefly suspected was a TIA ("mini-stroke") although they could not find signs of such a thing having happened. It did send him to the ER, but I didn't hear about it until it was over, so I didn't have time to worry. There's some real gallows humor hiding somewhere in the "Thanks In Advance" interpretation of TIA.